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this infinite, wise, holy product of them, the death of Christ ; and [how] that God should call us to represent and show forth this death. The Lord forgive us where we have not longed to perform this work as we ought; for we have suffered carnal fears and affections, and any thing else, to keep us off from employing ourselves in this great and glo- rious work. The grace and mercy of God, in this matter, is ever to he acknowledged, in that he has called us to this great and glorious work.
2. Then, surely, it is our duty to answer the mind of God in this work, and not to attend to it in a cold, careless, and transient man- ner. But, methinks, we might rejoice in our hearts when we have thoughts of it, and say within ourselves, " Come, we will go and show forth the Lord's death." The world, the law, and Satan, are con- quered by it : blessed be God, that has given us an opportunity to profess this ! 0 that our hearts may long after the season for it ! and say, " When shall the time come?"
3. We may do well to remember what was spoken before concern- ing the great duty of representing God to our souls, that we may know how to attend to it. I would speak unto the meanest of the flock, to guide our hearts and thoughts, which are too ready to wander, and are so unprofitable, for want of spiritual fixation. We would fain trust to our affections rather than to our faith ; and would rather have them moved, than faith graciously to act itself. And when we fail therein, we are apt to think we fail in our end of the ordinance, be- cause our affections were not moved. Set faith genuinely at work, and we have the end of the ordinance. Let it represent Christ to our souls, as exhibited of God, and given out unto us ; as suffering, as tendered to us, and as received and incorporated with us.
DISCOURSE V.1
" But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup." — 1 Cor. xi. 28.
I have been treating of that special communion which believers have with Christ, in the administration of the ordinance of the sup- per of the Lord ; and thought I should have treated no more of that subject, having gone through all the particulars of it which were practical, such as might be reduced to present practice. But I re- 1 Delivered January 7, 1669-70.
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member I said nothing concerning preparation for it, which yet is a needful duty; and therefore I shall a little speak to that also, — not what may doctrinally be delivered upon it, but those things, or some of them at least, in which every soul will find a practical concern that intends to be a partaker of that ordinance to benefit and advantage, — and I have taken these words of the apostle for my groundwork : " But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup."
There were many disorders fallen in this church at Corinth, and that various ways, — in schisms and divisions, in neglect of discipline, in false opinions, and particularly in a great abuse of the administra- tion of this great ordinance of the supper of the Lord. And though I do not, I dare not, I ought not, to bless God for their sin, yet I bless God for his providence. Had it not been for their disorders, we had all of us been much in darkness as to all church way. The cor- rection of their disorders contains the principal rule for church com- munion and the administration of this sacrament that we have in the whole Scripture ; which might have been hid from us, but that God suffered them to fall into them on purpose that, through their fall, in them and by them he might instruct his church in all ages to the end of the world.
The apostle is here rectifying abuses about the administration of the Lord's supper, which were many; and he applies particular direc- tions to all their particular miscarriages, not now to be insisted on; and he gathers up all directions into this one general rule that I have here read, " Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat," etc. Now, this self-examination extends itself unto the whole due prepa- ration of the souls of men for the actual participation of this ordi- nance. And I shall endeavour, by plain instances out of the Scrip- ture (which is my way in these familiar exercises), to manifest that there is a preparation necessary for the celebration or observance of all solemn ordinances; and I shall show you what that preparation is, and wherein it doth consist ; and then I shall deduce from thence what is that particular preparation which is incumbent upon us, in reference unto this special ordinance, that is superadded unto the general preparation that is required unto all ordinances.
I. I shall manifest that there is a preparation necessary for the celebration of solemn worship. We have an early instance of it in Gen. xxxv. 1-5. In the 1st verse, " God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and make there an altar unto God." It was a solemn ordinance Jacob was called unto, — to build an altar unto God, and to offer sacrifice. What course did he take? You may see, verses 2, 3, " Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and